Storage Didn’t Play a Primary Role During the Eclipse, but It Helped in Its Own Quiet Way

The Great American Solar Eclipse has passed, and as far as I can tell no part of the grid imploded.

Many clean energy experts had downplayed the threat to electric reliability by comparing the eclipse to a very large cloud passing over the sun, albeit an eminently predictable one. That comparison seemed apt in the Bay Area, where the event was largely hidden behind a thick layer of San Francisco fog.

Further inland, though, the solar resource did dip visibly, and the California Independent System Operator toggled its switches in...